I have five in the back (three 8 oz and two 16 oz), and six in front (all 8 oz). The ones in back I fill roughly once a day.

Last week we were sitting outside on the back patio. The feeders were on the second floor windows and on the deck railing above us. I shot these with the 70-200mm lens, and despite the ability of the lens, most of the shots turned out pretty dark.

I was shooting against the sky, you see.

Anyway, I’m not yet into the mode of photographing hummers, but these were froliking right above us, and I thought I would give it a go with some casual shooting.

Here’s a nice sequence (I thought) . . .

These are not my best photos, and I’ve not yet tried to have them land on my finger (last year). As I said, I was not that close, and shooting against the light. That means I had to play with the processing a bit to make them visible.

I thought this was a nice one:

When the hummers were not around, I entertained myself by shooting flowers.

These are zinnias.

This is one of two clematis in the same color

Anyway, here’s two more shots to tie you over until I start my efforts to properly capture these extremely fast flyers..

The SmugMug gallery, such as it is, can be found HERE. I’m not switching on the original views since the photos are pretty grainy. I’ll be getting better photos soon.

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8 Responses to Hummingbirds 2014 – Part 1

I am always fascinated by the hummingbird pictures you take. the amazing detail, and the way you seem to capture their determination. Or sometimes their possessiveness…”This is MY feeder, go away immediately!” I look forward to your pictures of the hummers every year. They are incredible !

I just put two more feeders out back due to increased traffic – it’s a rare rainy day, and they seem to hit the feeders much more when it’s wet out. Also, it’s pretty chilly (65 F) and that too gets them to the feeders .

They tend to fight less too in weather like this (although they still get testy if too close to one another).

Right now they are still a bit jumpy (the camera shutter makes them fly off) and only a few seem to not mind me being around. That will likely change over the next few weeks, and I’ll try to get them to land on me.

I saw a lot of hummingbirds when I was out in Colorado, way more than we have here. I put 2 feeders up and hardly got any action. My neighbor has 2 also but they are seldom visited. They’re so much fun to watch. These photos are really very nice.

That’s been my experience as well. When we were in Michigan I was thrilled to have 3-4 hummers come visit my yard.

When we moved here (at 7,300 ft elevation), I thought we’d have no hummers come by. It was a pleasant surprise to find out there are so many here. Right now I can step out and watch 15-20 hummers just in the backyard jockey for the spots on the eight feeders I have up (20 feeding stations). And we’ve not even hit the peak migration yet.

It’s even worse when the weather turns, probably because it’s more difficult to feed on the flowers (they are all drooping right now due to the water on them). I filled six of the feeders this morning (48 oz. total), and I’ll fill them again after dark so that at dawn the hummers will have plenty of foods.